人妻少妇专区

Alumni Gazette

鈥淚t鈥檚 like going to a circus and watching a trapeze artist,鈥� Erin Morley 鈥�02E, one of the world鈥檚 most sought-after coloratura sopranos, says of the operatic style of singing.

鈥淎 lot of it is about showing off a facility, about singing really high and really fast. It鈥檚 something not every voice is built to do, and there are special roles that highlight those strengths.鈥�

Those roles鈥攐ften comedic and frothy and frequently the kind that charm audiences and critics鈥攁re becoming a key part of Morley鈥檚 repertoire as she has stepped into the international spotlight during the past decade.

Since 2011, a string of critically acclaimed appearances in the great opera houses of Vienna, Munich, and Paris have established Morley as one of the most in-demand performers at some of the opera world鈥檚 most influential venues. She has a good relationship with the Metropolitan Opera in Manhattan, where this winter she makes a number of notable appearances鈥攆irst in her role debut as Pamina in The Magic Flute, then as the Forest Bird in Siegfried, and as Constance in Dialogues des Carm茅lites.

She was invited to participate in three celebrations in 2018 for the 100th anniversary of the birth of American musical icon Leonard Bernstein. And in September she made her debut鈥攁t 34 weeks pregnant鈥攊n Debussy鈥檚 Le Martyre de saint S茅bastien with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester in Berlin.

Her performances regularly earn high praise. The New York Classical Review: 鈥淓rin Morley is in a class of her own among coloratura sopranos, singing even the most dazzlingly difficult material with beauty and musical sense.鈥� Morley recognizes that she wasn鈥檛 always offered the coloratura roles.

Instead she was often cast in roles that required a much heavier singing voice, which meant she had to be judicious about which to accept to avoid damaging her vocal chords.

In 2011, she gave birth to her first daughter. 鈥淭hat really did change the trajectory of my career,鈥� Morley says.

Now the mother of two daughters, ages 7 and 2, Morley was expecting her third child, a boy, in October. The first day of rehearsal for The Magic Flute is four weeks after her due date.

鈥淵ou have to treat it like an Olympic sport,鈥� she says of maintaining her voice, which one critic has described as 鈥渂rilliant as a diamond.鈥� That means holing up in the music room of her New Haven, Connecticut, home for up to five hours a day, practicing intensely but more slowly than usual to work through reflux and other body changes that come with pregnancy.

鈥淢y job right now is to make sure everything I have to perform after this baby is born is ready to go,鈥� she says.

As someone who鈥檚 on the road between six and nine months a year, Morley thinks a lot about work-life balance.

鈥淚 think you can get swallowed up in motherhood, and you can get swallowed up in your career,鈥� she says. 鈥淏eing both a mother and a singer at the same time helps to keep me grounded.鈥�

After earning her undergraduate degree in vocal performance from the Eastman School of Music, Morley completed two graduate degrees at the Juilliard School before her acceptance into the Metropolitan Opera鈥檚 selective Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, where she trained and performed for three years on the Met stage.

Believing that every singer must always remain a student, she works with multiple mentors鈥攖echnical voice teachers, a vocal consultant, a speech pathologist, and language coaches鈥攖o sustain and improve her technique.

Gerald Martin Moore is Morley鈥檚 vocal consultant both in person and via Skype. Based in New York City, he鈥檚 an internationally recognized singing teacher and vocal consultant who also has worked with renowned soprano Ren茅e Fleming 鈥�83E (MM), and is an expert on coloratura singing.

鈥淲hat makes her stand out for me is that a lot of singers who specialize in very high coloratura repertoire don鈥檛 have such warmth in the 鈥榤iddle voice,鈥欌�� says Moore, referring to a range between what鈥檚 known as the 鈥渃hest voice鈥� and the 鈥渉ead voice.鈥�

Case in point: Morley says she鈥檚 embracing the lyrical role of Pamina in The Magic Flute, even though the opera鈥檚 Queen of the Night, which Morley has sung in the past, is the coloratura showcase role. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to become a one-trick pony,鈥� she says.

Morley came from a musical family. Her father sang in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and her mom gave her violin and piano lessons. She remembers being 12 or 13, listening to a live performance of a young pianist perform with the Utah Symphony near her home in Salt Lake City.

鈥淚 remember feeling just how much power he had in order to make me feel all of those things I was feeling,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 wanted to be able to do that for people.鈥�

She had never seen an opera before her first year at Eastman, when she attended a school production of Albert Herring, a comic chamber opera in three acts by Benjamin Britten.

鈥淚 walked up to Steven Daigle, who ran the opera department, and said, 鈥業 really love this. Can I be in the next one?鈥� 鈥� she says. 鈥淗e laughed, and oddly enough, he did cast me in the next one.鈥�

What captivates Morley about opera is that every live performance is unamplified鈥攚hat she calls a 鈥渃elebration of the human voice.鈥� And through roles that explore comedy, drama, and despair, she takes the audience on an emotional journey.

鈥淚 get to hold up a mirror to humanity,鈥� she says, 鈥渢o offer them a chance to look at their own lives and say, 鈥楢m I like this character?鈥� It feels like a form of therapy for me and for the audience.

鈥淚 hope it is.鈥�

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Flanigan is a Rochester-based freelance writer.